Roam With Me! Some of my Firsts in California. Part Two.

Allow me to continue sharing some of the many firsts I experienced during my July 2018 trip to California. If you haven't had a chance to view the earlier post -- Part One -- please do that.

8. 

 Visit to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As luck would have it, we managed to pick the hottest day imaginable to go there. Frankly, we went to simply say we'd been there. It's the truly touristy thing that I usually try to avoid while traveling, and with the intense heat added plus all the concrete, it was by far our least enjoyable first of this trip. 

On a positive note, I did go to Hollywood Harley-Davidson where I got a cool t-shirt, and I also found a bookstore dedicated to the film industry where I picked up a copy of the screenplays for "The Shawshank Redemption" as well as an episode of "Friends," so this visit wasn't without its perks.

Additionally, we ate lunch in an out-of-the-way elegant Italian restaurant that served excellent food. Plus, it was air conditioned, so I was able to cool off a bit before our next crazy adventure.

9. Saw where some of the stars live on a van ride from Hell! Perhaps, I should clarify -- "tried" to see 
where some of the stars live. Our driver took us up Mulholland Drive, which is apparently (and seemingly so) the highest street in L.A. and where stars like Tom Hanks live. Between holding on for dear life as he drove like a maniac around sharp curves with steep drop-offs to his sudden stops where he'd point in a general direction before speeding off again, I can only take his word (not sure how much I'd give that) for it that stars actually lived in the houses he pointed to. At one point we stopped by a gate behind which supposedly was Bruno Mars house. Could be. No idea. All I saw was a closed gate. We did get to see houses better in Beverly Hills including a massive one that apparently is Sandra Bullock's 55 million dollar house. 

10. Walked down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. This was still the hot day, so between me sweating like crazy and the fact that I don't have enough money to purchase even the smallest item from any of the stores on that street, we simply walked and peered inside each store as we passed.

 

Basically, we saw incredibly bored looking sales people all dressed up with nobody to talk to -- I guess there are a lot of people who didn't want to be out shopping on that hot day. Rich people have better sense than we did.

11. Took a train ride. In all honesty, this was actually my second train ride, but my first happened years ago in Spain, and it was an overnight ride spent in a horrible small bunk in a sleeper car from which I never got to look at the landscape as we rode, so I don't like to count that trip. This one on the Coastal Starlight train which runs from L.A. to Seattle with numerous stops along the way was the first actual train ride that I was able to thoroughly enjoy both for the scenery we passed and for my companion. 

We rode along the Pacific coast for a good chunk of the trip, and we were in the very last cabin (number 14), so the only people wandering through the aisle were those actually riding with us. We did wander down to the snack area and the observation cabin, but the soft drinks were warm and the good seats were all taken, so we mostly just stayed put for the 11 hour trip to Oakland. The views from our windows were still stellar. Here are a few.

Can you tell I love the water?!!


While this was a long time to be cooped up on a train, it was so much better than being on an airplane. For one, we were still on the ground (no matter how many times I fly, I will always hate it because there's nothing right about being 30,000 feet in the air!). Also, there was a lot of foot room, and the seats actually reclined! None of that minuscule half a centimeter reclining action bullshit you get on an airplane. Thirdly, you could walk around as much as you like and go from cabin to cabin, and you could even get off for a minute to get some air at each of the stops. Additionally, the restrooms actually had enough room to turn around in. We were enough impressed by train travel that we are going to look into taking more trips this way. Oh, yeah -- none of those stupid security body scans, no checked luggage, and you can take aboard your own food and drinks (that is something we wish we'd known ahead of time, but we'll certainly remember for the next train trip we take.)

12. SAN FRANCISCO!!!!! Oh my god, I love this city. Everything about it was a first for me really, so I'll try to stick to the highlights. Unfortunately, our first glimpse of the city took place at night after we deboarded the train in Oakland. We took a bus across the huge Bay Bridge and got our first look at San Francisco while it was all lit up. Gorgeous. I was too much in awe of the bridge and the city and tired from the long train trip to even think to get a photo. Oh well. More to come.

13. City Lights Books visit. Knowing I was finally going to visit San Francisco, a city I'd only dreamed of seeing, I booked us into a hotel only a block from this famous bookstore, so that way I wouldn't have to carry my haul of books so far -- and I could easily visit it more than once, which I did, naturally. Oh my, isn't it pretty?

I came away with only nine new books for my home collection, and that was after two visits to City Lights and one to Russian Hill, another wonderful bookstore in this great literary city. I was pretty proud of my restraint.

14. The Golden Gate Bridge. Not only did we take a boat ride out under it and around Alcatraz, but we also walked all the way across the bridge and back. Comparing this bridge walk to the one from last summer across the Brooklyn Bridge, I think I enjoyed the set up of the Brooklyn Bridge better for walking across it, but I more thoroughly enjoyed the views from the Golden Gate Bridge.

Maybe you can see the little dividing line in this photo which shows that bicyclists are supposed to stay on the side closest to the cars while walkers are supposed to stay on the side closest to the edge. Let's just say that a lot of people don't pay much attention to that, so there are a lot of bikers who have to ding their little bells to get walkers out of their way. The sidewalk isn't really all that wide, so there were times where I feared we would be hit by some of the natives who bike across the bridge regularly and don't have patience for us tourists who get in their way. This is why I liked the wider walkway set up on the Brooklyn Bridge. However, we found that not too many tourists actually walk all the way across the bridge like we did, so the number of people thins down to a trickle, as you can see by this photo, the further across the bridge you go. It is a little over a mile across, and we had a beautiful morning for our crossing. But it was quite windy up there, and we noticed many caps that people had lost in the crossing lying on the track just over the edge. What a great experience this was, though.

15. 

 Since we were staying by City Lights, that meant we were staying in Chinatown. Never having eaten real Chinese food in a real Chinese restaurant, we had to give it a try. Let's just say Kim used his chopsticks in the photo only and for one failed attempt to eat some rice. I, however, ate most of my noodles that way, so I was actually pretty proud of myself. We learned that Chinese food is pretty good, but we still prefer Italian and Mexican if given a choice.

Allow me to put in a plug for the hotel where we stayed. I found it online simply by searching around the area where City Lights is located, and I read some of the reviews. People said good things, and it was reasonably priced for San Francisco, so I reserved a room for us. 

We were very very pleased with our stay here. The people working at the desk each day were so wonderful, and the room was just the right size. We didn't have a view, but we got enough of that traipsing all over the city each day. It goes by SW Hotel online. When we first arrived in the dark in Chinatown in what by many standards is a bit of a seedy part of town, I had my doubts as to what I'd got us into, but once inside the hotel and our room on the 4th floor, we were very happy with it. There are so many great things to see that are walk-able from here. I'm so glad I chose to stay there.



16. Everything else we saw and did while in San Francisco were firsts for us as well. We loved the climate and temperature and the fact that there was no humidity and seemingly no bugs!

We saw this MASSIVE container ship sail under the Golden Gate Bridge from the Presidio park and couldn't believe how huge that ship was. I wish we'd still been on the bridge to see this beast sail under us.

 Went to Alamo Park to see the Painted Ladies from the opening of "Full House," and, yes, this is a VERY touristy thing to do, but we loved looking at the architecture of San Francisco.

 This is the house used in "Mrs. Doubtfire." The trees are new since the movie, and the steps have been redone.

 Even though this is the heavily touristy part of San Francisco, no trip there, especially no first trip there, is complete without a stroll along Fisherman's Wharf. We are glad we went because that's where we found the boat that took us on the great ride out to see Golden Gate Bridge from below and around Alcatraz. Visiting the island itself wasn't possible for us as all the trips out there were booked up for over a month. We were o.k. with just seeing it from afar though.

This is looking down Lombard Street -- the block long section of it that is called the crookedest street in the world. We walked up what felt like a million stairs to get to the top, but it was worth the view. Unfortunately, it was early evening, so much of this is in shadow.

The massive Bay Bridge coming from Treasure Island toward San Francisco. The other half of it is hidden from view behind the island, but that half goes to Oakland.

These are just sailboats docked at San Francisco, but I think this picture is really pretty.

This was our sneak peek into At&T Park while the Giants were playing.

We did not ride a cable car while we were there because what this photo does not show is the mile long line of people waiting to get on it. We did get to watch the conductors turn the car, though, which was very interesting to see.

I had long wanted to go to San Francisco, and I'm so glad it finally happened. Three days couldn't do justice to all this city has to offer, and I really loved our time there. I'd like to go back someday for a longer stay, but time will tell. I'm not sure if I could manage those intense hills if I wait too long to return, so I'm very thankful that I had the opportunity and a willing traveling partner to finally make my dream of seeing San Francisco come true.